Monster in the room cannot be used as excuse to derail justice

All of us can be quick to sit in judgement without a clear appreciation of the context. But nobody could be accused of that when it comes to the heinous, disgusting crime committed by Michael Cardamone.

And yet he has appealed Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry’s landmark decision to not fix a non-parole period for the murder of Whorouley’s Karen Chetcuti (nee Verbunt).

What right does a man who Justice Lasry said clearly had no remorse, possessed not even a scintilla of a chance of rehabilitation, have to declare he has the right to one day be set free?

Yes, the chorus will be loud and widespread and unfortunately this probably will cause renewed distress to the victim’s family.

Such outrage is totally understandable, unlike many cases where people often with the loudest but not the most informed voices get heard.

But surely the case of Michael Cardamone is different? In the eyes of the law Cardamone’s case is not, nor should it be.

The judicial process, steered by the statutes and the weighty, complex guideposts of precedence, must always be allowed to do what has to be done. Because the day that exceptions begin to be handed out to arbitrarily determined “special circumstances” is the day our judicial system becomes mortally wounded, unraveling protections that ultimately affect the legal rights of us all.

It would leave the door ajar to issues of such magnitude that it almost bears not thinking about.

To the layman, the case of Hoddle Street killer Julian Knight might serve as a warning.

Under a different sentencing regime, Knight was was handed a life term but was granted a fixed non-parole period of 27 years.

That seemed so far into the future that it became relatively bearable.

Time passed, as it does, and the Victorian government ultimately felt compelled to legislate to keep Knight behind bars.

We have the right to express our disgust at the individual decision of Cardamone to act on his right to appeal his sentence.

It would appear to be symptomatic of his perverse psychological make-up.

But it is as much for the victims and their families who have to go through such pain that we too must endure the upset of the relatively brief process of a sentencing appeal.

If even monsters such as Cardamone are denied that right then all of us will ultimately suffer.